Dual Purpose Emergency Lights

Dual Purpose

When you add a backup battery and a charging circuit, a general lighting fixture can serve as a dual-purpose light: a 2 for 1 solution that provides dusk-to-dawn illumination in addition to emergency lighting capabilities. We offer a variety of everyday light fixtures which operate at night AND whenever power is interrupted (emergency situations). These light fixtures are both architectural and useful, providing a cost effective all-in-one solution. Dual-Purpose fixtures with emergency backup capabilities operate and provide illumination for 90 minutes in the event of a power loss. Call us at 800-282-5600 to discuss your application and how our dual-purpose fixtures could fit your needs.

How Many Emergency Lights Do I Need?

Emergency lighting—lighting designed to identify and light up passageways, stairwells, and exits to ensure safe and organized evacuation from a structure during an emergency—is required for the vast majority of structures, whether commercial, industrial, public, private, educational, medical or otherwise.

But determining the placement, number, and type of emergency lights required is a complex matter, largely dependent on the nature and layout of your building in conjunction with the requirements of NFPA’s 2018 Life Safety Code 101, Section 7.9.

Read on to learn more about the basic requirements of this code.

It’s More about Where than “How Many”

To answer the question asked by the title of this article, one should instead ask “Where do I need emergency lighting.”

The regulations have more to do with ensuring sufficient lighting along the path of egress in any structure, rather than assuming that a certain number of lights would be adequate.

Thus, the size and layout of your building, the location of corridors, stairways, and doorways leading to exits and the exits themselves, will all determine where emergency lighting is needed.

This, along with the length of the corridors and the size of rooms and open spaces, will determine how many are needed in each area to provide sufficient lighting for safe and orderly evacuation during failure of power and normal lighting.

Understanding the Basics Behind Emergency Lighting Requirements

Here are the basics of 2018 NFPA 101, Section 7.9.2, which dictates that:

Emergency lighting systems must be arranged in such a way as to provide an initial illumination of no less than an average of 1 foot-candle along the path of egress as measured at floor level.

After the emergency system has been on for 1.5 hours, the light may decline to an average of 0.6 foot-candle along the path of egress, but at no point should it become less than 0.1 foot-candle.

Emergency lighting must be supplied for all exits and paths of egress to those exits.

An important point for sake of understanding the above – one foot-candle means that one lumen is provided per square foot.

There are numerous other regulations regarding emergency lighting that are important to know, but the above basic points are the primary ones that will determine how many lights you will need to install in your specific structure.

Essentially, along paths of egress and exits, every square foot of floor must be lit by an average of approximately one lumen – one foot-candle). Clearly, depending on the type and strength of emergency lights you purchase and install, as well as the size and layout of your space, you will need a fair number of lights.

Obviously, the process of measuring the space and identifying the coverage provided by the emergency lights you purchase, as well as ensuring you appropriately identify all pathways in need of emergency lights, is a complex and tedious process. But you do not have to navigate it alone.

Let the Pro’s Help

Compliance with NFPA’s and your AHJ’s regulations is important, not just so that you can avoid fines, but so that those working in and occupying your building are kept as safe as possible.

It is also important to ensure the emergency lighting system is regularly maintained to ensure they perform as intended. The experts at Koorsen can help keep your facility safe with regular inspections, service, and replacement of lights if needed. Give Koorsen a call today for all your emergency and exit light needs.

Intelligent Emergency Lighting

Tridonic hard wired DALI emergency lighting management

Simple, reliable, and scalable to any project size.

Simple control is the great advantage of the Tridonic emergency lighting system: installation is done quickly, and all tests are run automatically at the right time in accordance with BS5266.

LDL manufacture DALI emergency luminaires which then can be incorporated into a DALI emergency lighting network which is managed by the Tridonic x/e touchPANEL.

The local control panel shows the status of the emergency lighting system and can be interrogated to exraxt information. It also has the ability to be connected via the internet to report back to a dashboard remotely.

Key features of the system

Designed for small and medium emergency lighting systems with up to 120 DALI emergency lighting units (60 for each DALI line) per DALI x/e-touchPANEL 02

Function and endurance tests can be conducted in accordance with BS5266

Supports patented addressing function (“EZ easy addressing”)

Individual labelling of groups and devices

Calendar-controlled function and duration test

Interconnection of up to 25 panels for bigger installations possible